Bug 504470

Summary:	Klipper rasterises Inkscape clipboard content across restart
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	pbs3141
Component:	Clipboard widget & pop-up	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, matthias.j.w.heil, nate, qydwhotmail
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	regression
Version First Reported In:	6.3.4
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
See Also:	https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=504469
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description pbs3141 2025-05-18 14:22:09 UTC

SUMMARY

Copying something in Inkscape then pasting it back after a restart results in it being rasterised. This is an inherently lossy conversion since Inkscape is a vector graphics editor not a raster editor.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. Open Inkscape.
2. Draw a rectangle.
3. Copy.
4. Restart Inkscape.
5. Paste.

OBSERVED RESULT

A png image of the rectangle is pasted.

EXPECTED RESULT

The original rectangle should be pasted.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS

KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.12.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Graphics Platform: X11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This is related to the comment at https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=504469 that image/svg+xml should be the only format stored in the clipboard history. Prior to plasma version 6.3.0, this was the case.

Comment 1 Matthias 2025-06-26 18:59:35 UTC

I lack the technical knowledge to fully confirm this, but think that I am seeing the same problem in LibreOffice Impress; Ctrl+C -> Ctrl+V on a shape rasterises it; for some reason, however, a second attempt seems to usually work.

Comment 2 David Edmundson 2025-09-23 10:03:28 UTC

When copying to the clipboard the client will say "this data is available as png, jpeg, webp, gif, xml, svg" backing up all of them would be wasteful so we have to make a decision and pick text and pngs.

Comment 3 Matthias 2025-09-23 10:11:35 UTC

I see what I assume to be the same bug in LibreOffice Impress, where it is quite annoying; copied boxes containing text become rasterized, which makes them useless. Usually repeating the Copy & Paste-operation solves the problem. Copying & Pasting worked without problems in the past, so I don't fully understand why this bug is now marked as "RESOLVED INTENTIONAL" - it significantly and negatively affects usability of widely used software.

Comment 4 David Edmundson 2025-09-23 14:02:14 UTC

Sounds similar. 

I do still think we should only save one mimetype, but it doesn't sound like our choice is very sensible. 

>Prior to plasma version 6.3.0, this was the case.

I hadn't read this the first time round, lets revisit then.

Comment 5 pbs3141 2025-09-25 17:06:18 UTC

If svg is offered by the application, you could only save svg and text, or svg and png, or just svg. At least when copying from Inkscape, any of these would fix the regression.

I would recommend never saving png if svg is present, since plasma does not use the png for anything (e.g. showing a preview). Saving the png only wastes storage space, and time spent generating it. Even if plasma did show a preview, it would be better to generate it from the svg on demand, at whatever resolution it requires.

As for text, it would be nice not to save that either, but that might break pasting an svg into a text editor, so text might need saving alongside svg.